Appeasement
There is an epidemic of disappearing guts these days. Folks with this disease used to be called "gutless wonders," but it isn't any wonder at all. No one wants to make anyone else angry; everyone wants to sit on the fence, regardless of how sharp those fenceposts are. On the national political scene, this phenomenon appears in people who are "personally opposed to abortion" yet believe it should remain legal. It all comes back to the sister heresies of relativism and individualism: there is no "right for you but not right for me" and you do not exist in a vacuum; there is right, and there is wrong, and you exist in a community.
I say those who either sit idly by and do nothing about a situation, or those who continue associating with someone or something they know to be wrong because "it doesn't affect me personally", need to think long and hard about why they are doing that. There is indeed guilt by association, regardless of how you associate. It's all well and good to "work from the inside," if you make it clear that you are opposed to an organization's policies, publicly. I haven't seen this done very often, because to oppose something publicly and fiercely from within entails danger, and the very folks who need to do that are the very "gutless wonders" who need guts!
Stop and think: why do we associate with groups we disagree with, and say nothing about it? Is it because we have let seep into our very souls the "dictatorship of relativism" that Pope Benedict XVI so carefully warned us against? I say speak up, or get out.
Matthew 7:21-23: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
posted by Chad @ 2:34 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Agreed.
You've diagnosed a pandemic, Dr. I've seen the symptoms of this disease practically everywhere I look. On both sides of the political aisle, in every church or community. It is, at its very basic, modernism. We think that because we are good Catholics we will not fall prey to Modernism. But it's philosophy is so pervasive that unless we are actively working to weed out every existence in our hearts, thoughts and actions, we will inevitably miss something.
We have to constantly be forming our conscience against it. Especially we who are such new Catholics, who have just been saved from the mire of modernism that is protestantism. We young ones need to be especially vigilant and protect the young plants of our new faith. The soil does not stay fertile on its own. It remains fertile by our choice and work driven by the Holy Spirit.
Bekah, you're exactly right about the "mire of modernism" that is Protestantism. The sad thing is that conservative Evangelicals consider themselves to be far, far away from being "modernists," while they just ride a raft of "Scripture" adrift on the stormy sea of modernism, not seeing the cracks that appear in their raft every time a discrepancy in that Scripture is examined.
Oh yeah, and there's but one safe harbor against that stormy sea, and that's the Church, and there's no lack of space in the marina.
They feel that the lack of accountability to anything is an insulation from heresy. By not depending totally on any other man's interpretation, they feel they are relying on God alone. They neglect to identify themselves as man, since they are "indwelt by the Holy Spirit". Instead of protection, however, it is the very root of heresy.
testing testing...I cannot post a blog...im trying to see if I can post a comment.
yep
Post a Comment
<< Home